Hofstadter has done a superb job of presenting an intriguing melange of disciplines that are seemingly unrelated. The author manages to quickly show that Godel's theorems, Escher's art, and Bach's music have much more in common than most would think. In a lengthy but VERY worthwhile read, he manages to get the reader to analyze many of the assumptions commonly held about the nature of thought and why it is so devilishly difficult to formalize the thought process with rigid rules, among other topics.

That he manages to entertain as well (he writes with a wry sense of humor on what are typically handled as rather dry subjects) and manages to reach the layman is what sets this volume apart as the masterpiece that it is. Although it is accessable to the layman, the book does become progressively more challenging and I strongly recommend completing his suggested exercises before moving on, otherwise you will likely find yourself unable to grasp the point he's trying to make several pages later.

Hofstadter has pulled off a miracle with this book. If you like ideas and like reading about how ideas fit together, then get this book. Definately not a one-sitting book (at least for me) but very interesting and worthwhile. It's like listending to your favorite comedian lecture as a highschool teacher on a subject you can't help but be amazed at. He melds art, music, math, computer science, Zen, and more into a beautiful tapestry of fascination. Highly highly recommended.

As pure Art, as magnificent intelligence incarnated as absolute beauty, this is the greatest book ever written by human hands. It is a terrible thing to contemplate that 150,000 people die every day without having read this book. Don't let it happen to you.

This book dramatically illustrates two things: First, that truly fascinating subjects and truly beautiful works of art require fundamental concepts from cognitive science and an implicit understanding of the Universe. Second, that no matter how deep a scientific idea is, it can still be explained to any intelligent reader, without using obscuring clouds of mumbo-jumbo.

Artificial Intelligence, mathematics, cognitive science, computer programming; art, music, language; it doesn't matter whether you know them, or you want to know them, or you just want an unlimited amount of amazing fun - read this book. I could spend the rest of my life reading this book and I would still be noticing wonderful new gems.

This book is the WW2 memoir of a Waffen-SS soldier written while in American captivity immediately following the war. Johann Voss, a pseudonym, is a thoughtful, intelligent young man from a prominent family that joins the Waffen-SS in 1943 out of patriotism and the idealistic desire to protect Europe from Communism. One of his main purposes in writing the book is to counter the evil reputation of the Waffen-SS (deservedly earned by such divisions as Tötenkopf) and show that not all Waffen-SS soldiers were cruel murderers but that some were motivated by quite selfless and altruistic goals.

The book is well written, fast-paced, and quite an interesting read. It is fascinating to see how the soldiers described do not see themselves as evil world-conquering monsters, but rather as noble heroes. It did strike me as a bit too sugarcoated ' the suffering of the soldiers in the cruel winter environment of Finland is not really covered, and the focus tends to be on his positive experiences, rather than the negative. This was obviously written by an idealistic 20-year-old who had not yet been exposed to the horrible crimes of the Nazis and the SS. Still, it is worthwhile to read an account from the other side of the war and learn about their motivations for fighting ' not really that much different from the American boys over there.

A first rate memoir, in which the author crystalizes his wartime experiences and reflections in a direct and thoughtful manner. As the publisher and editorial reviews have stated so well, there is fresh and added-value to this memoir, since it was largely written at the conclusion of WWII. It is free of the 'rationalization' and detachment typical of many memoirs written years later, and largely by the German Officer Corps.

The author addresses a number of the painful questions facing German WWII veterans in general, and Waffen-SS veterans in particular. Although, a number of the reasons cited by the author for his volunteer enlistment in the Waffen-SS, and support for the Nazi regime's war effort, may sound stereotypical, the context and timely record of his judgements transcend these well-worn cliches. The author was able to clearly and concisely translate his personal value system against the backdrop of Nazi Germany, and honestly open his life to the reader's inspection, free of rationalization and ready answers. He draws the conclusion that sometimes there are no answers of 'why' to pressing questions of personal value judgements, but that some values remain constant and must be used to face the future.

In sum, this memoir presents more of a common man's 'thinking' perspective - a middle-class and average German viewpoint. Again, not to be understated, is the value of this memoir as written at the end of WWII, and the honest insight captured within. Read and enjoy!

As noted in the other reviews, this is one of the best war memoirs around, perhaps the best German memoir of WWII. Unlike so many other accounts written only years after the fact, Black Edelweiss was penned within the first years after the war and not originally meant for publication. I suspect the author, with a strong sense of family, wanted to have something to present to his decedents, something that he had completed as a young man still with the full emotion and confusion of the initial bewildering and catastrophic events that were the fate of his generation.

This memoir is interesting on a variety of levels. One is the account of mountain infantry training the author received as a young volunteer for the Waffen SS. Far from politically indoctrinated fanatics, we see an elite military organization preparing men for combat in modern war. I suspect that the emphasis on political and racial indoctrination was more a product of the pre-war years, when the Waffen SS was seen as a force against potential enemies within the Reich, not after say 1941 when large numbers of new replacements were needed to man an expanding number of divisions fighting in foreign theaters of operations. That and the fact that many foreign volunteers, some from ethnic groups lower on the SS pecking order, where filling the ranks of these formations as well. The emphasis went from "elite order of racial Uebermenschen" to "cadre of the common European struggle against Bolshevism". This latter attitude is mentioned by the author numerous times and obviously was one of his main reasons for joining the organization.

On another level is the sociological perspective of various views common among Germans during 1941-3. He sees his own class in school as divided between the idealists and the pragmatists. Some, like the author, saw the war as a personal challenge and were eager to commit themselves, while others saw it as the business of others and hoped to survive the chaos as best as possible, which is hardly the usual view we have of German youth of that time. Interesting in that the author shows us how universal this conflict of views is. One need only think of the attitudes of the generation of young Americans confronted with the Vietnam War and how they reacted, although in some cases in later life only to adopt the opposite view when it no longer required a personal commitment.

So some of us can respect the author's decision to serve his country as a soldier in wartime. But the branch he chose to serve with was the Waffen SS, part of the larger SS, which was to be branded a criminal organization by the Allied courts due to their administration of the Holocaust among other crimes. The author admits the crimes and the guilt of the SS (he found out about the death camps and other atrocities as a POW after the war), but can't condemn all his comrades, most of whom are dead, as criminals in serving a cause which they believed in, which the author never thinks included common knowledge of the criminal character of the SS. It is a quandary for which the author never finds an answer, perhaps because no answer is possible. That the author saw the Nazis as having perverted all the values that his generation had believed in, of destroying his country in a senseless war while pursuing the most inhuman crimes imaginable is tempered by the fact that he doesn't see the defeat of Germany as a liberation. . . See page 133.

The mistake was in not overthrowing the criminal regime themselves, which was a "disgrace", but in having to have their enemies do it for them. Furthermore, the final outcome of the National Socialist swindle was not inevitable, "All the same one lesson is clear: never again must there be any public authority without active popular control". Page 71.

There are others points the author mentions as well such as the belief common in Germany after the First World War that a new movement which would do away with the old distinctions of class and status, create a Volksgemeinschaft, was necessary for national rebirth. Also of special note are his interesting and gratifying comments concerning US troops in action and his description of Operation Birke, the German evacuation of their Lapland Army from Finland to Norway in the fall of 1944, an arduous trek of over 1600 kilometers conducted in good order under pressure from both the Red Army and later the German's former allies, the Finns. I doubt that this unique military achievement of the Lapland Army will ever be repeated.

This book should be of interest to all readers interested in the Eastern Front in World War II, particularly since it is one of the few accounts available of fighting on the Karelian sector, those interested in the history of the Waffen SS or those interested in a sociological perspective of Germany during World War II.

A very subtle but eye opening look into why death is not something to be feared. I feel much better for having read this book.

Not much to say, besides that this book helped me in a low moment to go on with life, no matter what...it's true stories of people who were 'between a rock and a hard place'. If you know very low moments in your life, read this!

The year 2001 was an incredible year, filled with shaking world events, but also with much that united us in our common humanity. As September 11th forced us to realize, we all grapple with weakness and fear, even as we cling to hope and faith and joy. As I witnessed in New York after the September 11th attacks, suffering brought forth an incredible strength of character in many people. It gave me hope in the ultimate triumph of Good like never before. And I found this message reinforced and echoed in every page of "Be Not Afraid."
After the events of this past year, including the wars now raging in many parts of the world, I cannot think of a more timely, more important book than this work of hope by Johann Christoph Arnold. As the subtitle suggests, the central theme is overcoming the fear of death, and yet the book is overwhelmingly about life-about living with joy and faith, no matter what meets us.
Through a treasure trove of personal stories that make the book near impossible to put down, "Be Not Afraid" meets the age-old human fear of death head on, with a power and intensity that leaves one changed. Again and again, the reader encounters a great and loving Power, far greater than the need and fear and weakness of human beings-a Power that draws especially near to the suffering and dying. We see glimpses of a reality so wonderful it takes one's breath away. I came away convinced: Death is not the last word. And the great Power in control of all things is telling us: Be Not Afraid!
The people whose stories fill the pages of "Be Not Afraid" have faced staggering obstacles and extracted life's deepest truths from them. If you want a true guide for the New Year (and the rest of your life), read this book. It is an extraordinary edifier of hope and faith-one that has the power to banish fear, even of the "last enemy," death.

I love Goethe's creative works and his scientific theories, but most of all I love this book. I travel with it, look in it for advice and conversation. As an artist Goethe was incomparable; as a scientist he was curious, alive, observant, questioning -- but as a man who lived a life with a conscious intention to make his life a work of his own mind and heart he is the master and that master is found in the pages of this book. When I need a wise friend, I turn here and find, beside the wisdom, a silly person who thought spectacles were an affectation, an attempt on the part of someone to be something he was not. . .

While in graduate school in Australia I happened in a pub (which is not extraordinary in itself) and got to talking with the bar-tender. It turns out that he was a student at the Univ. of Queensland too and was getting his MA in German. I told him how much I enjoyed Nietzche, who was the focus of his thesis, and eventually we got around to Eckermann's Coversations. I told him it was one of the best books that I had ever read: so quaint and yet probing. The reader sits in the drawing room and hears the most extrodinary discussions. In this way it reminds me of Sherlock Holmes and Watson. It is so civilized that it is almost nostalgic--but far too potent for that due to the genuis involved (Eckermann's mind ain't to shabby either). The newly made friend expressed amazement that an English major happened on this book; he said that I had been the only person outside the German dept that he had met that had ever read the book, or even heard of it (and this in a much more literate country than here). This is truely a shame we agreed. Ease-drop on a better time when scholars were gentleman, and in search of the truth not some PC BS, and were enamored with ideas. Goethe's Maxims is also highly recommended--as Faust and his other better known works. A Western classic, like the subject.

For those who do not know anything about Goethe at all, 'Conversations' may not be a good place to start - but for those who are a little familiar with Goethe, 'Conversations of Goethe' makes for fascinating reading.

Very rarely do we have the life of a genius so well and closely documented. This book is not a record of formal interviews; it is a record by Eckermann, Goethe's good friend, who took the trouble to write down the great man's words almost every day, it seems. The book reads like a diary of Eckermann's, filled with Goethe - there is one entry for almost every day for a few weeks, then a break, and so on.

Eckermann seems to have written down almost everything he remembered from his conversations - and some of what Goethe said here may be edifyong, some not so much; but all of it is significant for one trying to get an insight into Goethe's mind - how it worked, how he thought, how he did things - right from the grand projects down to the simple pleasures.

One comes away from this book with an "insiders glimpse" of the Goethe's mind and world - and that really helps when reading his works.

The idea of Goethe as the complete, the perfect man, the universal genius - sticks with the reader years after reading this book. We live in an age when the really good things do not matter; Goethe reminds us of all the things that can, and do matter - and those things that can refresh, change, and enliven.

Nietzsche called this "the greatest book in German there is".

I've already read the book through twice. The first time in one sitting. I ordered another copy for a friend, but I'm keeping mine to read again. This is a totally uplifting book. Definitely a five-star!

"Why Forgive?" brings a simple, but powerful message. Every time we experience something painful, it opens the door to choose either bitterness or compassion. If we choose bitterness and hatred, we give other people the power to ruin our lives. If we choose compassion and forgiveness, we find an inner peace that no one can take away from us. Arnold brings many stories to support this simple point. Some are tragic stories far outside the normal experience of most people. Some are almost mundane stories from the everyday lives of ordinary people. The combination illustrates how forgiveness is just as important in small grudges as in the dramatic life stories of faraway people. I'm totally inspired.

Thomas Martin Koblenz, Germany

Why Forgive? Hard as it may be this book shows in a simple and powerful way that the only way to true freedom is through forgiveness. While bitterness seems the roads to take and hatred towards those who have hurts us the excepted emotion, Arnold dares to tells us the true stories of people who choose the road less travel and in the end found the freedom to let go and change their world by forgiving. He also gives us a look into the lives of those who choose to be angry, only to destroy themselves. This book is moving and powerful, it is a striking lesson of something most people and talkshows refuse to speak about. I only pray that people out their struggling with bitterness and revenge read this book and know there is another way.

The stories collected between the covers of "Why Forgive?" are an extremely crucial testament to the power of forgiveness. The people who speak in this book have a right to do so. They are family members of murder victims, or themselves the victims of violence, abuse, and other grave injustices. Our world seems to continually to change for the worse because, in general, it has not grasped the power that lies behind the stories in "Why Forgive?" This book is not meant to give you a warm, fuzzy feeling--to trivialize forgiveness, as is so often done these days. This book is meant to change your life. And it will.

the student mastering counterpoint cannot go through without 'The study of Counterpoint' by Joseph Fux

ray.sant

This is a really fun book. It teaches counterpoint, yet I could read it for leisure reading. It is written as a conversation between an instructor and a student, and there are many, many examples... based on these teachings and recieved great feedback on them.
A highly recommended read for anyone who has ever written a song.

[reprint -- sorry]

At one point in the text, Aloysius pretty much says it all: "These lessons are not worked out for actual use but for exercise. If one know how to read one need no longer bother with spelling; similarly, the species of counterpoint are given only for purposes of study."

I have been working out of this book (which is really an excerpt of a larger book called _Steps to Perfection_) with a private tutor for a year, and it has been a difficult but rewarding experience. Essentially, the species provide a platform to learn how to compose concurrent melodic lines. Each following species builds upon the knowledge of the previous. Rules that begin absolute slowly become contextual. While the book's original title is anachronistic, the program within encourages steps towards the understanding of basic tonal principles that have formed the foundation of the grand tradition of western music.

I'd recommend keeping an open mind about the rules. These are treated as the "rules," but are expected to be broken with time and experience. After all, the rules are no more than the collected general tendancies of the great composers.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Fux's book provides an introduction to composition based upon the limitations--and, accordingly, the beauty--of the human voice. This book does not deal with the embellishments and ornaments possible on all instruments.

More caveats: One, I would recommend studying this book with an experienced teacher. It's like a beginning yoga text: basic, but someone with experience will put things in perspective. Two, the exercises, especially for three and four voices, are difficult and require commitment and discipline. (Again, like yoga.) There is no need to rush through the exercises. Three, Fux's book should be part of an integrated tonal curriculum that at least includes four-part writing and ear-training.

And Fux's book is hardly the last word even on counterpoint! At the very least, study 18th century and 20th century counterpoint, because those broad styles used Fux's treatise as their basic foundations. Those who criticize this text do so because it does not immediately apply to modern music situations. But they often fail to see how the text fits beautifully within the broad spectrum of composition. This book reflects the basics of tonal architecture. No more, no less

there is little wonder why authors like Nabokov, Bely, Bulgakov etc. have used this book as a foundation for many of their most famous books. faust is simply exquisite.

Open the first page and embark into the world of Goethe, there is little wonder why faust took fifty years to complete. Be warned, though, that once delved into, the external world will appear mundane and worthless. Faust is a must read for anyone who is willing to devote the necessary time to completely understand the element of absurdity (as according to camus). read and find out if a fifty year vacation with the devil is worth your soul. A MUST BUY NOW!

....and a tale so archetypal, so Frankensteinian and relevant to the concerns of our Faustian culture, that if you read it and don't feel uplifted, bedazzled, and troubled, then you probably don't get it.

Nothing could ever surpass this book in scope or beauty. This book asks the question: is life worth living? is it worth it to strive? or is the suicidal nihilism of Mephistopheles the only product having attained a great amount of experience? Part I is brilliant and romantic. The Gretchen tragedy is, in my mind, greater than Romeo and Juliet. Part II is classical. Though much more obscure in its references, it too manages to achieve great beauty and import. And all this not in the original language. Read this book.

Goethe comes alive as a very real person, not just the famous German author, in this travel memoir detailing the two years he spent in Italy in the 1780's. A wonderful description of travel before airplanes and cameras. Somewhat tedious descriptions of geology and of his works-in-progress are frequent, but never too long.

It might be helpful to read (or re-read) the introduction after having read part of the book (say, into the first Roman visit).

In preparation for a trip to Italy, I began reading the accounts of famous travellers to that land: D.H. Lawrence, Charles Dickens, Tobias Smollett, and now Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. I had no great expectations but was knocked for a loop from page one.

Never before had I encountered a questing mind quite like Goethe's. Almost from the moment to left Carlsbad in September 1786, he was noticing the geological structures underlying the land and the flora and fauna above it. He sits down and talks with ordinary people without an attitude -- and this after he had turned the heads of half of Europe with his SORROWS OF YOUNG WERTHER. Here he was journeying incognito, apparently knowing the language well enough to communicate with peasants, prelates, and nobility.

One who abhors marking books I intend to keep, I found myself underlining frequently. "In this place," he writes from Rome, "whoever looks seriously about him and has eyes to see is bound to become a stronger character." In fact, Goethe spent over a year in Rome learning art, music, science, and even sufferings the pangs of love with a young woman from Milan.

Bracketing his stay in Rome is a longish journey to Naples and Sicily, where he becomes acquainted with Sir Warren Hamilton and his consort Emma, the fascinating Princess Ravaschieri di Satriano, and other German travelers. One of them, Wilhelm Tischbein, painted a wonderful portrait of Goethe the traveller shown on the cover of the Penguin edition.

The translation of W.H. Auden and Elizabeth Mayer is truly wonderful. My only negative comments are toward the Penguin editors who, out of some pennywise foolishness, have omitted translating the frequent Latin, Greek, and French quotes. I am particularly upset about the lack of a translation of the final quote from Ovid's "Tristia." In every other respect, this book is a marvel and does not at all read like a work written some 215 years ago. It is every bit as fresh and relevant as today's headlines, only ever so much more articulate!

This was billed as a good introduction to Goethe. I don't know, since this is the first Goethe I've read--but I'm delighted. It starts as a sojourn south, with detailed notations of rocks, geologic information and topography. Don't let that deter you! His description of eating just bread and red wine on his sea voyage to Sicily (because of his rolling seasickness) had me running for a bottle Italian Barbera! As my late great aunt would have said: "A nice, nice book."

I have read many books about dying, but this is the one I would give to a person approaching death or facing bereavement. From start to finish it shines with hope. I want a copy beside my bed when my time comes." Paul Brand,M.D. author, Pain: The Gift Nobody Wants

A Little Child Shall Lead Them; Hopeful Parenting in a Confused World is really the best book that is out there about children, about parenting, about every and any aspect on children. We live in a very confused world. There is so little good and helpful stuff out there. Dr. Spock and Dr. James Dobson, Focus of the Family are getting a little out of date and stale. That is why: "A Little Child Shall Lead Them" is such a refreshing change. Boy your mouth will drewl when you get a copy and see how modern day educators are raving about this book. Get your copy now. It is available at l-800-521-8011 David Wipf

"I Tell you a Mystery" is a beautiful book of surpassing dignity and tenderness...I hope it will be widely read, not only by those who call themselves religious, and I hope it will be shared with children also. Although written with great simplicity of style, it is nonetheless a work of moral mystery." Jonathan Kozol, author of Amazing Grace

I first read lives of the musicians when I was about 7 yearsold or so. Then, I thought it was terrific. I still do. However, I amnow 12 years old, and now that I have paid more attention to it, I see several faults, but overall it is still a very good book. First of all, their choice of musicians is not the best. I would have recommended Debussy and Schubert, like the Kirkus Reviewer. Some of the composers I have hardly ever heard of, like Igor Stravinsky or Nadia Boulanger. And while Clara Schumann was a great pianist, I think they should have focused more on her husband, Robert, a prolific composer, whose works are among the very best. Also, some of the parts of the biographies are questionable. Frederic Chopin may not have actually been romantically involved with Aurore Dudevant (George Sand), but in love with the Countess Delphine Potocka. The book states that the Waltz in D-Flat, or Minute Waltz, was written for George Sand's dog, when in fact it was probably written for Potocka. However, the book was still very well written, and I enjoyed it, despite the possible mistakes. I recommend this book to anyone who likes music, classical or not. So sit back and enjoy!

I loved this book because it made those musicians seem like real people instead of great-all-star-super-geniuses. It is full of strange little facts about all the famous musicians like Bach,Gershwin,Beethoven and Schmann.

---Megan W.

This book provides interesting insight into the lives of composers. I teach music to elementary and high school students and I read this book to all of my students. They all enjoy learning the details of the composers lives. The book presents the composers in such a way that the students remember the information about the composers. The book does not provide information about what the composers' music sounds like, and that is something I also like to teach. A great book to gain kids'interest in famous composers.